Its finally crypto summer for the public markets

While August is typically a sleepy month for IPOs, Peter Thiel-backed crypto firm Bullish (appropriately named, it would seem) is set to buck that trend later this month with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Sources told me the round is already oversubscribed, with six times more investors trying to get in than can be accepted — Blackstone and Ark Invest have some of the largest buy-ins — in a sign that crypto mania is continuing. 

After a prolonged crypto-winter where the price of digital coins was in the doldrums, Bullish’s impending IPO is the latest indication that we have reached crypto summer.

“It’s like holding a balloon underwater and, the moment you let go, it rips up,” Head of Investment at ReserveOne Sebastian Bea told me of companies now racing to go public, after years of a closed market. “On the investor side, it’s been very difficult, until recently, to get access to crypto in the public markets.”

Whether the race to list is because companies are eager to cash out or afraid of some reversal in a regulatory regime, there’s more crypto action in the public markets than ever before.

In the past year, Galaxy Digital expanded its listing to the Nasdaq in May 2025 (after trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange), trading platform eToro went public, and so did fintech giant Circle which has soared since its June IPO. Bitgo, Grayscale, Kraken, OKX and Gemini are in the process of listing on a US exchange later this year.

This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC’s power players (and those who aspire to be).

Companies such as BitMine, Marathon Digital Holdings and even GameStop have embraced a digital asset treasury play, holding cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum on their balance sheets.

“Crypto companies held back so much because of the regulatory issues,” Bea added. “Now, the regulatory side of things have gone from extremely difficult to quite supportive.”

In part, bankers — always eager for fees and successful listings — see a window of opportunity and are aggressively encouraging companies to move forward in an otherwise disappointing year. Dealmaking in the US has slowed over the last year, which means bankers are on the hunt for new sources of revenue.

And they’re also giving many investors what they want.

Of course, as more digital asset companies go public, competition for investor capital in crypto-related investments will intensify.

“You only have a few winners and then the market becomes fragmented,” Aya Kantorovich, who runs DeFi company August Digital, explained. “Premiums are decreasing because liquidity is already being allocated to other digital asset treasuries and companies.”

While there may not be a premium for these assets anymore, going mainstream has many advantages.

Just a few years ago, investors faced intense scrutiny for allocating client’s funds to crypto assets. Now, driven by Coinbase’s inclusion in the S&P 500 — boosting credibility, visibility and investment inflows — crypto is seen as a standard investment rather than a risky one.